I will HOWL: Great Wolf Lodge

After almost 6 years, with children, (one at least) we took our first official family vacation.  Which also happened to be for my birthday.  And...we brought our sitter.  :)

Friday Morning, we headed out for Wisconsin Dells; Great Wolf Lodge.  A somewhat spendy getaway...but worth the memories.  The kids loved it.  And with a sitter, we also got to enjoy some of the slides!

And we are off!  Kamalee was set to be comfy. :)

 It is a good thing I really like my job.  Pastor asked that I 'skim' read this book.  Which I did, on my birthday!

 We made it!  The entry to the lodge!

 Ready for fun!

 First look, at the outside pool.  The water outside was a little chilly, so we didn't spend a ton of time outside.  Which was ok.  We didn't have to worry about sunscreen or getting cold.  Inside there was 5 other water park areas!

 Kami and Justin in the dump area....she didn't care for this one, I think because the water was cold.

 First time down the water-slide....total addict.

 They made it.

 We had a small incident in the bathroom and Jayse had a bump on the head.  So he rested the remainder of the day, while Kami, Lindsey and I did the water-slides for 2 hours.  We were beat.  So Kam and Lindsey went to bed early and Jayse explored with us.  He met Oliver the Racoon and listened to story time.  And they did a puppet show under the clock here.

 Wolf ears are a must here.  And you must learn to howl.  Which Kamalee was quite good at! :)

 Jayse was not in to the selfies...

 Show your wolf teeth...

 Saturday Morning!  

Kamalee doing a little show, waiting for the elevators.

 Her friend as we went down.

 Kamalee woke up asking to swim.  We had to buy time before it opened!  They liked watching the water flow below.

 Bear Paw!

 Finally, the park re-opened!

 Little water slides!  Both terrified to try...then they didn't want to quit!

Headed home.

 Was definitely a good time.  It would be awesome to go for several days and do many of the other attractions in the area.  We never even left our motel.  But plan to pay a pretty penny for that! :)

p.s.--- sorry about some of the photos!  Wouldn't you know that my camera would die the first picture I tried to take!  So they are all from our phones :/

Independence Day

I finally have a [semi] independent moment...so I can recap our Independence day!

(And by independent, I mean, the kids aren't tackling one another, nobody is screaming and/or crawling on me.)

Knock on wood.  May it last more than 2 minutes!

It has just been one of those days.  For like the 4th day in a row.

cousins!

Learning to sit in the sand...baby Xander

The water was chilly!  It took some getting used to.  Jayse took a face first spill...and then it was all fun from there!

 All my family, but one sister, was able to make it over to celebrate the 4th.  What a group!

Has anyone seen Alyssa?? :)

Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July!

Kindergarten Prep

Sorry it is sideways!  I wasn't sure how to flip it.

I made 2 books for Kamalee....YESTERDAY!  She has gone through them each about 4 or 5 times.  I am so proud of her.  We are going to be SO ready to show off in Kindergarten!

(she even did way better the time before we taped her...stage fright, I guess :) )

A Calm Weekend

We have been going non-stop for so long, we almost forgot what a calm weekend felt like!

 Friday, was the first day the kids and I got to stay home and just hang out in over 2 weeks.  It was nice.  Although the sun wasn't shining, it was perfect yard playing weather.  Not too hot.  And the sand was perfect and wet to build castles in.  Although, I don't think I will be building anymore; now that Justin has taught Jayse how to be "Godzilla" of the sand box.  I would no sooner get one bucket-full up and he had it stomped down.

The kids played a game of train down the slide and climb back up.  Great therapy climbing up the slide!

 My favorite!

We got a tag-along for Kami to go on bike rides.  She has learned to ride her bike, with training wheels.  But with her eyes glued to her shoes, it makes for a slow and circular ride. :)  

Pretty stinkin' cute.